Adani Power takes one of three mines on Day-1 of commercial coal auction

Firm quoted 9.5% premium on reserve price of Gondkhari coal mine in Maharashtra

For the second round of bidding under the commercial coal auction, Adani Power won one mine from the three offered on the first day. The company quoted 9.5 per cent premium on the reserve price of the Gondkhari coal mine in Maharashtra.

In the first round of commercial coal auction held last year, Adani Enterprises has bid for the highest number of coal mines through its various companies.

For the other two mines, Raipur based CG Natural Resources Pvt Ltd and Gurugram headquartered South West Pinnacle Exploration Ltd quoted bids at 24 per cent and 6 per cent premium respectively. CG won Jogeshwar & KhasJogeshwar mine in Jharkhand and Jhigador mine in Chhattisgarh.

The total geological reserves of the mines put up for auction on Day-1 are 432 million tonnes. Of the three mines on auction, Gondkhari coal mine is explored while the other two coal mines, Jhigador and Jogeshwar and KhasJogeshwar are partially explored.

Coal ministry has put 19 mines for auction in the second round of the auction. Out of the total mines, 10 are fully explored, nine are partially explored mines. There are four coking coal mines and the balance 15 mines are non-coking coal mines. Two or more bids have been received for eight coal mines, the coal ministry said in its statement.

The Centre in 2020 opened the coal mining sector with private companies entering the arena of commercial mining and sale of coal 47 years after mining of the fossil fuel was nationalised in India. It amended the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, in May to open the coal auction for non-mining, MSMEs and foreign companies. The two-part auction concluded in November when companies submitted bids for 19 out of the total 38 coal blocks on offer.